::Introduction of Bhagavat Gita in curriculam

Introduction of Bhagavat Gita in curriculam

Shri Durga Prasad asked “One retired judge said that Bhagavat Gita should be introduced into the syllabus of every student. Another retired judge contradicted this. What do You say about this?”

Swami replied: It is better to say that spiritual knowledge should be introduced into the syllabus. If you take the name of Bhagavat Gita, other religions will misunderstand. Spiritual knowledge is like a person and religions are like his different shirts in different colours. Religion is related to culture, language and a specific set of traditions. The word ‘secular’ should mean the basic spiritual knowledge, which is common in all the religions. But, today, the word ‘secular’ is taken in wrong sense, which is to reject every religion. In such case the spiritual knowledge is also rejected since you cannot have any person without any shirt. In the earlier days, there was conflict between religions because all the people were theists believing in God. Their quarrels were only superficial because the underlying spiritual knowledge was accepted by all.

Today, the fantastic growth of science led people to disbelieve spiritual knowledge and God.

Now the conflict is not between religions. The conflict is between spiritual knowledge and non-belief of this spiritual knowledge. The fight is between theists and atheists. Hence, the basic spiritual knowledge of all the religions must be introduced, which can fight with the arguments of the atheists. In the present context, the differences between religions must be ignored and the underlying spiritual knowledge must be studied without reference to any religion. For example we can introduce the word ‘God’ without introducing the equivalent terms of God like Parabrahman, Allah, Jehovah etc.

Similarly, we can introduce ‘human Incarnation’ without introducing the specific names of the human incarnations like Krishna, Mohammad, Jesus, Buddha etc. This will avoid the partiality towards a specific religion. After explaining the basic concepts like God, human incarnation etc. we can give the examples for these concepts from various religions to indicate our impartiality. You can give all the details of a person without any shirt on his body. Later on, you can show the person in different shirts. By this you have not only given the details of the person but also showed that the same person exits in all the shirts. Similarly, you can give the knowledge of God without reference to any religion and then say the equivalent terms of God in all the religions. By this, you are not only speaking about God but also showing that the same God exists in all religions.